Force Unleashed PS3/360 "indistinguishable"

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 May, 2008

"If we've done our job right," says producer.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed producer Cameron Suey says that the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of his game should be "indistinguishable" from one another.

"Between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, if we've done our job right, they'll be indistinguishable," Suey told Eurogamer during a recent press event to showcase progress on the next-generation versions.

"We really wanted to make the same sort of polished, high-end next-gen experience on both those versions."

Suey also explained why the 360 and PS3 versions lack multiplayer, describing it as a "difficult decision" to make, but "a pretty easy difficult decision".

We knew that to really make the fully polished story experience that we wanted to make, we had to focus on that single-player experience. It definitely was a good choice, I think. It's easy to have a game that's just okay, with a multiplayer that's just okay - but we really preferred to have that powerful single-player experience," he said.

In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, players take on the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice between films three and film (or six and one, if you like), and the physics-heavy gameplay looks phenomenal.

Suey and his LucasArts chums were in London last week showing Force Unleashed to press on 360 and PS3, but the Wii version was also in attendance. You can see what we made of all three versions in our Star Wars: The Force Unleashed preview, which also includes the full transcript of our chat with Cameron Suey.

The full game is due out on PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PSP and PS2 on 19th September.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • 3william56 #1 4 years ago

    Oh, I'm sure some sad person with a frame counter and a pixel counting microscope will have a go at splitting hairs between the two versions anyway. Because it really is what the audience here at EG *really* want to read and argue about, isn't it?

  • miiiguel #2 4 years ago

    It's the freakin kick-back mate..., after the "4d gaming", "next-gen starts when we say so"; "360 is Xbox 1.5"..., what did you expect?

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 4 years ago

    EG will be disappointed if they dont use their frame counter/screen tearing percentage in future head to head, so bet that the claim of "indistinguishable" will only egg them on!

  • alimokrane #4 4 years ago

    What The Hell has the gaming industry Come to ? must EVERY SINGLE DEVELOPER say that 360 and PS3 versions will be identical from now on ??? this is becoming a silly, stupid and RIDICULOUS trend!

    ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!
    Edited by 1 at 13/05/08 @ 11:52

  • Darren #5 4 years ago

    I'm sure indistinguishable will ultimately mean the PS3 version will have slightly poorer anti-aliasing or none at all but hopefully I'll be completely wrong despite strong evidence to the contrary from many other multiformat games on the PS3... sadly. If the game is good I'd have bought for the Xbox 360 anyway.

  • Xerx3s #6 4 years ago

    Force Unleashed PS3/360 "indistinguishable" ... because both will be looking as good as the wii version.

    I was very impressed the first time the showed the engine but every time they show something new it looks less and less impressive.

  • Psychotext #7 4 years ago

    Yeah... Rockstar said the same thing, as have many other devs.

  • des #8 4 years ago

    So 360 version will be better,since every developer has been saying the same thing over and over....

    Where is my Kotor 3 ?

  • Putty-Man #9 4 years ago

    But we don't want it to be indistinguishable, we want it to be better on PS3 to prove all the extra $ we've spent on our PS3's are worth it!

    (or are going to spend some day).

  • Hughes. #10 4 years ago

    I look forward to the next 8 page flame war about how they're not quite indistinguishable.

    Except... you know... I really don't.

  • StooMonster #11 4 years ago

    I don't yet own a PS3 or 360, very high spec PC and Wii sort me out, but I am thinking of buying one of either of these consoles simply to play this game. :)

    Greatest resolution with best temporal updates (frames per second) will be the one that gets my money -- just as it works with GPUs -- so I for one look forward to EuroGamer's new FPS analyser being put into action to distinguish the indistinguishable.

    [Edit: darn typos]
    Edited by 1 at 13/05/08 @ 12:48

  • chicknstu #12 4 years ago

    Apart from it costs more on PS3 and has worse controls.

  • MKorkia #13 4 years ago

    @StooMonster

    There's much to distinguish between Xbox 360 & PS3 besides graphics capabilities:

    1) Price - Xbox wins here
    2) Storage options - PS3 wins twice, Blue-Ray vs DVD & changeable HD
    3) Controllers - Xbox easily
    4) How much noise console makes - PS3 is much more silent
    5) Online capabilities - Xbox if you have money, PS3 if you don't
    6) Exclusives - Xbox if you want Halo & Forza Motorsport, PS3 if you want Gran Turismo & I.C.O. 3
    7) Online shop & DLC - Xbox (at least in Europe)

    etc, etc...

    Adwise: buy both, you'll get best of the both worlds! :)

  • DFawkes #14 4 years ago

    Isn't this the second "They'll be the same" thread today? I don't care! I've still to play a game that doesn't play identically on both systems. The Darkness, Burnout Paradise, Assassins Creed, Call of Duty 4, Devil May Cry 4, Guitar Hero 3, Oblivion, The Simpsons Game, Dynasty Warriors Gundam, Bladestorm, Lost Planet, Timeshift, Armored Core 4, and Jericho. Seen them all with my own eyes, not one of them differs between consoles.

    Except for the installs for at least 4 of them, obviously.

  • GamesConnoisseur #15 4 years ago

    PS3 fanboys will say the same, that PS3 is hamstrung to allow X360 to run equally!

    I am only pointing out what they would say, but personally if the game plays as well, same as GTA4 is doing great on either console, why worry?!

    Only because there is the perceived need to win the PRIZE of who have the BEST AND POWERFUL console! This argument will never be settled to everyone satisifaction...ever. So why bother waving dicks around?!

    /By the way the Spectrum is vastly superior in gaming pleasures to that of Commodore 64!

  • Fwing #16 4 years ago

    Megadrive > SNES

  • muscleblade #17 4 years ago

    @Fwing

    No way.

  • muscleblade #18 4 years ago

    @DFawkes

    Check your eyes mate. AC is worlds apart easily.

  • zedzee #19 4 years ago

    Is it just me or has every Star Wars game so far never really fulfilled and captured the impact and mood of the films?

    How's this one going to be different?

    I bet when it's released there'll be rumours that one version is running at a lower res than the other.

    Let the mayhem begin!


  • septimus #20 4 years ago

    /sigh. Using the 360 as the lowest common denominator to create games for both platforms sucks a bit. If they just tailored to the strength of each for once it would be nice.

    PS3 can do some great stuff when it's developed for solely.... guess that is what you get for having such an obscure architecture.

    I'll wait to play on both before I decide which platform to buy for. Probably 360 this time as I don't trust LucasArts to be able to program for anything more complex.

  • miiiguel #21 4 years ago

    you sound angry though..., games are supposed to be fun.

    You could also post where you read CoD4 is better on the PS3, no SDF doesn't count.


    tip: 2K is hiring developers for PS3, you should apply.

    "ps3 is more a dedicated specialised system.", everyone's wondering what for, though...
    Edited by 2 at 13/05/08 @ 16:12

  • peterfll #22 4 years ago

    Hmm picking on just one example, AC was slightly broken on PS3 release and required that emergency patch. Like it or not, there are still differences between the platforms - despite developers reassurances, look at GRID \ NEON as the most recent example - so expect the debates to go on (and hopefully the objective analysis of the differences which as an owner of both platforms, I actually welcome).

  • DFawkes #23 4 years ago

    @musclebalde

    Sorry, I was playing Assassins Creed earlier and had it on the brain. Didn't mean to add it to the list, haven't played it on 360. The rest of the list I've definitely played both though. My eyes are fine too :)

  • StooMonster #24 4 years ago

    @MKorkia: Thanks for that!

    1) Price: don't care.
    2) Storage options: surely you mean hard-drive as optical discs are not storage. Plus we all know the deal with slow access of BRD vs DVD hence required install of some PS3 titles, but as a gamer does one really care what format the optical media is in so long as the same game plays? If I wanted a Blu-ray player I would be a dedicated one.
    3) Controllers: familiar with those ones, use them on PC (e.g. Lego Star Wars) to great effect
    4) Heard 360, yes loud, but new 65nm chipset should be quieter and available from August; if 360 is better with this game will be buying in September and thus have quieter chipset. Although maybe we'll have a new PS3 then too.
    5) Online capabilities: I like Steam better.
    6) Exclusives: meh.
    7) Online shop: I like Steam better for games, and iTunes for music and video.

    I'm only really getting a PS3/360 to play this game, as I can wait for PC versions of most other things (that aren't Wii titles), I prefer my uber-PC for most games as I like to play them at 2560x1600 with lots of FPS, so definitely don't need two consoles; therefore which has best performance (pixel resolution + FPS) will be the deciding factor for me!

  • hexauk #25 4 years ago

    "If I wanted a Blu-ray player I would be a dedicated one. "

    Just a side note here, and I'm not knocking your decision what-so-ever.

    But the PS3 is recognized by many if not all websites that review movie hardware/music hardware etc as being the best blu-ray player in existence at the moment.

  • m0thr4 #26 4 years ago

    "But the PS3 is recognized by many if not all websites that review movie hardware/music hardware etc as being the best blu-ray player in existence at the moment."

    I think they mean "the best value for money", rather than the best. There is a big difference.